3 Fat Loss Steps
by Chad Waterbury
Sometimes I can't make it to the revered Gold's Gym in Venice to do my
workouts, so that means I'm often relegated to the fitness facility
that's in my complex. Recently, I was working out in my
complex's fitness facility while a young woman was doing the same. It
was late and we were the only two in the place, so instead of acting
like we were alone she decided to strike up a conversation. Maybe it
was because what I was doing was drastically different than what she
was doing. Or maybe she just wanted to be a Chatty Cathy. "Been living here long?" she asked. "Just about a year," I replied. "What do you do for a living?" was her second question. This is usually where I hesitate — especially in a gym. The
most innocuous answer I could think of was that I write for fitness
magazines. "Cool," she said. I was ready for the obligatory question
that was sure to follow — it did. "Are you a personal trainer?" I'll
give you full disclosure. Regardless of the fact that I've been
training people for 12 years, I usually answer that question with an
emphatic no. But I pulled in the reigns a wee bit and replied, "Not any more." There
are two reasons why I avoid divulging my training business to complete
strangers. First, I'm not looking for clients since I only train
one-on-one on a very limited basis these days. Second — and this is
especially true in a gym — I don't want to spend the remainder of my
allocated training time telling people how to train and eat.

I Could've Guessed I'd
watched her train for about 30 minutes before she started talking to
me. When I entered the gym she was reading while "exercising" on the
elliptical machine. She got off the elliptical about 15 minutes after I
entered the room, so I can't say how much total time she spent on it,
but it was at least 15 minutes. When she casually stepped off
the aerobic machine, there wasn't a single bead of sweat on her
forehead. (No surprise since she couldn't have swung her legs any
slower during those 15 minutes.) Then she headed over to the
area that featured dumbbells and a few outdated machines. For 15
minutes she performed a circuit of arm curls, leg extensions, straight
leg raises, and side bends — lots of side bends, with a 25-pound
dumbbell to boot. After finishing one of her circuits she
apparently got another itch to talk. She took the liberty of telling me
that she wanted to lose "this" (she put her hands on her stomach and
obliques) and "this" (she put her hands on her outer thighs) and slim
down "this" (she put her hands on her quads). "Yeah, that's what most girls tell me," I replied. The
girl was probably around 30 and she had a decent body, but she could
definitely stand to lose about 15 pounds of fat. In fact, her body was
very similar to most of the girls you see in the gym. Not fat, just
kind of frumpy. She was the kind of girl you knew was pretty hot when
she was in high school, but Father Time and hormones were starting to
rear their ugly head. I liked the girl and I genuinely wanted to help, but she made a critical mistake: she sought training advice from me while I was working out.
It was clear to me that her workout was coming to an end, and it was
probably clear to her that I wasn't going to be much help. So we
exchanged the mandatory, "nice to meet you" hogwash and she headed out
the door. She'd fallen into the same trap that 90% of the
females I encounter often occupy. Her training program sucked — big
time. I didn't need to ask her about her eating plan to know that it
probably wasn't ideal either. But the meeting definitely wasn't a
waste. It inspired me to put together a list of essential points for
all you ladies who want to burn off fat. If I wasn't such a crotchety bastard during my workouts, this is what I would've told her.

1. Sweat Within 5 Minutes If
you're not sweating within five minutes of starting your workout, you
need to rethink your choice of exercises. My female clients almost
always start their training sessions with rope jumping. I love rope
jumping for the simple fact that you can't cheat. Sure, you can try to
slow down the movement, but it's still challenging, and virtually no
other exercise will get you sweating faster than rope jumping. So
your first step is to start jumping rope at the beginning of all your
workouts. Start with five minutes. Most of you probably won't even be
able to jump rope for five minutes straight, but that's fine. Just
watch the clock for five minutes and perform as many revolutions as you
can. Do this before all your weight training workouts or at
least three times per week. Every workout add 30 seconds to your time
until you reach 10 minutes. The ultimate goal is to work up to 10
minutes of continuous rope jumping before you hit the weights. By
jumping rope you'll burn a lot of calories, you'll develop your legs
and shoulders, and you'll be well prepared (warmed-up) for lifting
weights. If you're not sweating within five minutes of continuous rope
jumping, jump faster and/or higher. A good jump rope costs
you less than 10 bucks and you can take it anywhere. Moreover, 10
minutes of rope jumping is one of the most efficient fat-burning
exercises you can perform. If you can't jump rope, do squat
thrusts. A squat thrust is simple: from a standing position place your
hands on the ground in front of you, jump your feet back so you're in a
push-up position, jump your feet back up to a position close to your
hands, then jump up in the air while reaching for the sky. That's one
repetition. Watch
the clock for five minutes and perform as many squat thrusts as
possible. These are even more demanding than rope jumping, so you
probably won't be able to do many. With each workout, or at least three
times per week, increase the number of squat thrusts. Eventually, you
should be able to perform squat thrusts for five continuous minutes at
a moderate pace. Once you can perform five continuous minutes
of squat thrusts, add in jumping jacks. Start with 30 seconds and add
another 30 seconds to each workout. The goal is to perform five
continuous minutes of squat thrusts followed by five minutes of jumping
jacks. Whether you choose rope jumping or squat thrusts with jumping jacks, you'll be sweating by the time you hit the weights!

2. Perform a Total Body Workout 3 Times Per Week A
total body workout consists of at least one of the following compound
movements in each workout: an upper body pulling, an upper body
pressing, and a squat or deadlift variation. The lat
pulldown/push-up/deadlift is a good example, so is a row/overhead
press/squat. There are dozens of different combinations when you
consider changes in hand and foot positions and different angles of
resistance. A total body workout will burn off more calories
than splits; that's one of the reasons I favor them. They burn off more
calories because they work more total muscle mass than, say, working
your upper body by itself. You should use three different loads that correspond with three different target rep ranges:
• Heavy: a weight you could lift 4-6 times before failure for 25 total reps.
• Medium: a weight you could lift 10-12 times before failure 35 total reps.
• Light: a weight you could lift 20-22 times before failure for 50 total reps. You'll
use the same load for all sets. In other words, there's no need to
mindlessly adjust the loads as you fatigue. Just stick with the
recommended loads and total reps, and the other details will take care
of itself. Organize
your training plan so each training session during the week consists of
different exercises. Repeat those three workouts each week for 4-6
weeks. Also, be sure to include single-limb exercises in at least one
of your training sessions each week. For a Monday/Wednesday/Friday
plan, I like to perform single-limb exercises on Wednesday. Perform
the first set and stop once you notice the speed is slowing down. Rest.
Perform another set and stop when the speed is slowing down. Continue
with this sequence until you reach the target number of reps. Then move
on to the next exercise. The following sessions are not
circuits, they're straight sets. However, a good method is to perform
the workouts as straight sets for a few weeks, then perform the same
exercises as a circuit for a few weeks. This ensures that your body
doesn't adapt to the workouts very quickly. Here's a sample plan.
Monday Load: heavy
Total reps: 25
Rest: 30 seconds
• Lat pulldown with palms up grip
• Dumbbell bench press on slight decline
• Deadlift
Wednesday Load: medium
Total reps: 35
Rest: 45 seconds
• One arm dumbbell row
• One arm standing dumbbell press
• Split squat with rear leg elevated
Note:
for this session, don't rest between limbs. Perform a dumbbell row with
your right, then immediately perform the same reps on your left. Then
rest for 45 seconds and continue with the sequence until you reach 35
total reps. All exercises on Wednesday should be performed that way.
Friday Load: light
Total reps: 50
Rest: 60 seconds
• Standing cable row with pronated grip, or lat pulldown with same grip while leaning back
• Push-up (place knees on the ground if you can't perform 20-22 before failure)
• Dumbbell Romanian deadift

What About Ab Work? There's
no need for direct ab work with this plan since the compound movements
will challenge all of your core muscles. But feel free to throw in a
few sets of the ab wheel or reverse crunch at the end of your workouts.
What I didn't tell the girl at the beginning of the article
was that a side bend is one of the worst exercises a girl can do if she
wants to keep a slim midsection. Building up the size of your side core
muscles only makes your waist bigger. Avoid them. The same is
true with curls. A female who simply wants to look good has no reason
to ever do a curl. All of the biceps stimuli she'll ever need will come
from compound pulling exercises. I've never met one non-competing
female that wanted big biceps, but that's just me. Curls aren't for
girls!

3. Protein, Vegetables, Fish oil, Surge and Water Consume
5-6 meals per day and eat protein and vegetables at each meal. How much
of each? It doesn't matter at this stage, just eat until you're full,
but eat your protein first. Okay, I'll offer up an olive branch: For
your three main meals you should eat a serving of protein that's the
size of a deck of cards. For your snacks, shoot for at least 15 grams
of protein in the form of anything you like, as long as it's a complete
protein. Examples include cheese sticks, cottage cheese, hard-boiled
eggs, chicken breast, or salmon jerky. With regard to
vegetables, any will work but I prefer that you stick to the green
variety. Green vegetables such as broccoli, spinach and asparagus are
loaded with nutrients, they have very few carbs and they contain
enzymes that help you assimilate protein. Alternately, you can check
out Biotest's Superfood product, which contains 18 different fruits and vegetables. Fish
oil, or more specifically, omega-3s are absolutely essential to help
you lose fat. You can't go wrong with six capsules of Flameout divided into two equal doses in the morning and evening hours. Here are three more key points:
1. Consume one-half serving of Biotest's Surge before and after your workouts.
2. Once each week, have a meal of anything you want.
3. Drink plenty of water: 0.5 ounce per pound of body weight each day.

Final Words Is
there anything else you can do to lose fat? Sure, any form of energy
systems training that's limited to 20 minutes of medium to high
intensity exercise will help. But the aforementioned three steps are
the most important steps that I could've told that girl within five
minutes. And you know what? If she would've followed the advice she
could've lost at least two pounds of fat per week for quite a spell. But unfortunately, I didn't tell her, and that's why I'm telling you. For more of Waterbury's information pick up his e-book The 10/10 Transformation here. His book Muscle Revolution can be purchased here.
Chad
Waterbury is one of the world's leading experts on developing muscle
for the goal of enhancing performance. His novel training methods are
used by athletes, bodybuilders, figure models, and fitness enthusiasts
of all ages and from all walks of life. He has an M.S. in Physiology
from the University of Arizona, and he specializes in the
neurophysiology of human movement and performance. He currently trains,
consults and lectures around the country. www.chadwaterbury.com


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